SCOTT WALD FOUNDER, PRESIDENT, CEO ASAP SOFTWARE EXPRESS INC.

Scott Wald wanted to be an entrepreneur for as long as he can remember. In high school, he used to swipe his father's Wall Street Journal to peruse the financial pages.

In 1984, ready to strike out after a sales position at Hewlett-Packard Co., he started a software distribution firm in a 400-square-foot office above an Evanston barber shop.

Now, ASAP Software Express has grown to 140 employees and sales of $150 million. It's been profitable since its third month. And it has a new corporate headquarters building in Buffalo Grove.

ASAP Software is one of a handful of direct distributors for software publishers, including Microsoft Corp., Lotus Development Corp. and WordPerfect Corp.

Such companies sell directly to ASAP Software, which in turn sells and services software for end-users such as corporations and municipalities.

"We do all the boring stuff that nobody else wants to do but that customers demand at a very high service level," says the 39-year-old Lincolnwood native.

What customers demand is a huge inventory of product, quick service and bargain-basement costs. In a mere 10 years, Mr. Wald has made ASAP Software into one of the best of a very competitive supplier group.

"He does a great job," says James Manzi, chairman and chief executive of Cambridge, Mass.-based Lotus.

Mr. Wald also has shown a make-do touch in his management style. Just starting out, he couldn't afford to attract high-priced help-so, he hired Northwestern University students for sales, collections and other significant jobs. "We got all that brain power," he says, "for not all that much money."